We have all the ingredients to make Canada an innovation leader: Senator Deacon
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If a Canadian innovates but no users benefit, did the innovation ever really happen?
This "tree falling in the woods" analogy focuses on an important question: if we cannot reliably generate social benefits and economic opportunities (jobs and wealth, in other words) from our exceptional research capacity, are we putting our future investments in discovery research at risk?
Canada has a strong global reputation in discovery research, ranking ninth among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development members for publications that are most often cited. This is thanks to a generation of world-renowned scientists who convinced our political leadership of Canada's ability to compete globally, and then delivered exceptional results.
Yet, despite many successes, we continue to struggle to reliably apply great discoveries in ways that create opportunity, wealth, and jobs in Canada. It's crucial to improving our productivity. This is important because 50 years of data illustrate the correlation between labour productivity and real hourly labour compensation. So, if we want the paycheques of Canadians to grow, we've got to successfully apply the most advanced knowledge.
The elements and effort underlying productivity improvements often get captured in "innovation index" measures. This year's Bloomberg Innovation Index evaluated seven categories, including investments in research and development (R&D), manufacturing value-added, patents, and post-secondary involvement. Canada advanced two spots in the annual index, breaking into the top 20 countries for the first time in three years. Interestingly, Canada scored 22nd in R&D intensity (discovery), 8th in patent activity (protection), but 39th in value-added manufacturing (a measure of the application of knowledge).
This year's Global Innovation Index ranked Canada 18th of 126 countries. Some of our strengths included ease of starting a business and market sophistication, particularly relative to the other top-25 countries, but we were also one of the high-income economies whose output didn't match its inputs. Despite innovation-related initiatives that span generations, political parties, and governments, we're still not getting a globally competitive return on our investment in innovation.
No wonder innovation has been a top priority of successive governments. What concerns me is that our competitors are starting to gain on us. This was highlighted in the recent Conference Board of Canada innovation report card when the stronger performance of Canada's peer countries caused it to fall in rankings.
Our ability to innovate is improving, but others are improving faster. That's troubling news in this "disrupt or be disrupted" world. Canada isn't lacking in research capacity, but we still struggle with the next step: applying those discoveries in ways that reliably create opportunity through social benefits, jobs, and wealth.
I've spent the past 20 years of my career as an entrepreneur, building startup businesses where cutting-edge technology was applied with an intensely customer-centric focus. In each case, our team was focused on solving a highly specific and costly customer problem. For me, the successful application of technology is all about the problem you're solving and the outcomes you deliver, to the point that the highly innovative technology underlying that solution becomes virtually invisible.
Genome Canada is an excellent example of a new type of structure that successfully brings multiple partners together to fund research and then move it from discovery to application. As a country, we need to build on our successes to ensure that the best research is reliably connected to the partners and entrepreneurs who can apply it to achieve impressive outcomes. If we don't, our great discoveries risk being interesting but inconsequential in both economic and social terms—or worse yet, a source of opportunity for competing economies.
The mobilization of knowledge at a global scale can no longer be overlooked in our research investments. A small but important first step would be for it to receive meaningful consideration in academic promotion and tenure at Canadian universities. Optimally, partnering with non-academic groups (business, for instance) will be viewed as essential to the advancement of tenure-track academics. Simply, applying knowledge in ways that solve important problems is crucial to creating the wealth necessary to fund future discovery research, and to keep improving our society.
We must continue to double-down on an urgent and unrelenting effort to successfully convert global problems into Canadian opportunities, and track our return on that investment.
Senator Colin Deacon represents Nova Scotia in the Senate.
This article appeared in the February 13, 2019, edition of The Hill Times.
If a Canadian innovates but no users benefit, did the innovation ever really happen?
This "tree falling in the woods" analogy focuses on an important question: if we cannot reliably generate social benefits and economic opportunities (jobs and wealth, in other words) from our exceptional research capacity, are we putting our future investments in discovery research at risk?
Canada has a strong global reputation in discovery research, ranking ninth among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development members for publications that are most often cited. This is thanks to a generation of world-renowned scientists who convinced our political leadership of Canada's ability to compete globally, and then delivered exceptional results.
Yet, despite many successes, we continue to struggle to reliably apply great discoveries in ways that create opportunity, wealth, and jobs in Canada. It's crucial to improving our productivity. This is important because 50 years of data illustrate the correlation between labour productivity and real hourly labour compensation. So, if we want the paycheques of Canadians to grow, we've got to successfully apply the most advanced knowledge.
The elements and effort underlying productivity improvements often get captured in "innovation index" measures. This year's Bloomberg Innovation Index evaluated seven categories, including investments in research and development (R&D), manufacturing value-added, patents, and post-secondary involvement. Canada advanced two spots in the annual index, breaking into the top 20 countries for the first time in three years. Interestingly, Canada scored 22nd in R&D intensity (discovery), 8th in patent activity (protection), but 39th in value-added manufacturing (a measure of the application of knowledge).
This year's Global Innovation Index ranked Canada 18th of 126 countries. Some of our strengths included ease of starting a business and market sophistication, particularly relative to the other top-25 countries, but we were also one of the high-income economies whose output didn't match its inputs. Despite innovation-related initiatives that span generations, political parties, and governments, we're still not getting a globally competitive return on our investment in innovation.
No wonder innovation has been a top priority of successive governments. What concerns me is that our competitors are starting to gain on us. This was highlighted in the recent Conference Board of Canada innovation report card when the stronger performance of Canada's peer countries caused it to fall in rankings.
Our ability to innovate is improving, but others are improving faster. That's troubling news in this "disrupt or be disrupted" world. Canada isn't lacking in research capacity, but we still struggle with the next step: applying those discoveries in ways that reliably create opportunity through social benefits, jobs, and wealth.
I've spent the past 20 years of my career as an entrepreneur, building startup businesses where cutting-edge technology was applied with an intensely customer-centric focus. In each case, our team was focused on solving a highly specific and costly customer problem. For me, the successful application of technology is all about the problem you're solving and the outcomes you deliver, to the point that the highly innovative technology underlying that solution becomes virtually invisible.
Genome Canada is an excellent example of a new type of structure that successfully brings multiple partners together to fund research and then move it from discovery to application. As a country, we need to build on our successes to ensure that the best research is reliably connected to the partners and entrepreneurs who can apply it to achieve impressive outcomes. If we don't, our great discoveries risk being interesting but inconsequential in both economic and social terms—or worse yet, a source of opportunity for competing economies.
The mobilization of knowledge at a global scale can no longer be overlooked in our research investments. A small but important first step would be for it to receive meaningful consideration in academic promotion and tenure at Canadian universities. Optimally, partnering with non-academic groups (business, for instance) will be viewed as essential to the advancement of tenure-track academics. Simply, applying knowledge in ways that solve important problems is crucial to creating the wealth necessary to fund future discovery research, and to keep improving our society.
We must continue to double-down on an urgent and unrelenting effort to successfully convert global problems into Canadian opportunities, and track our return on that investment.
Senator Colin Deacon represents Nova Scotia in the Senate.
This article appeared in the February 13, 2019, edition of The Hill Times.